Dozens killed in suspected Russian rocket strike on Ukraine train station

A missile that killed at least 50 civilians waiting to be evacuated at a train station in Ukraine was marked with a haunting message, it has emerged.

Dozens of people have died and many more are wounded following an airstrike on a crowded train station “full of civilians” trying to flee the Russian onslaught in eastern Ukraine.

The attack at a station in the city of Kramatorsk killed at least 50 people - including children - and left dozens injured, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of Donetsk region military administration.

“We have such a large number of victims at this hour as a result of the attack of the Russian occupation forces Tochka-U (ballistic missile) on the Kramatorsk railway station,” Mr Kyrylenko said in an update on Telegram.

Tetiana Ihnatchenko, a spokeswoman for the region of Donetsk, said that first responders had confirmed the initial casualty figures and warned the numbers were likely to rise.

Platforms at the station had been packed with people trying to evacuate as Russia stepped up its offensive in the area.

Photos provided by Ukrainian officials showed people splayed on the ground, surrounded by scattered luggage, decimated cars, a child’s pram, strewn stuffed toys, and debris.

“There are so many corpses, there are children, there are just children,” one woman screamed, according to a video from the scene.

Kramatorsk mayor Olexander Honcharenko said there were 4,000 people at the railway station at the time of the attack, and that most were women, children and elderly people. Five children have been confirmed among the dead.

“There are a lot of seriously injured people without arms and legs,” he added.

“They are being operated by 30-40 surgeons at the same time.”

Russians knew that the train station in Kramatorsk was full of civilians waiting to be evacuated. Yet they stroke it with a ballistic missile, killing at least 30 and injuring at least a hundred people. This was a deliberate slaughter. We will bring each war criminal to justice. pic.twitter.com/cq0CX9wovV

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) April 8, 2022

Ukrainian Railways operator chairman Alexander Kamyshin claimed the attack was a “deliberate strike” aimed at harming infrastructure and Ukrainian residents.

A message was visible on the remains of the rocket used for the attack, with translators saying the words “for our children” were painted in Russian on the weapon. The recurring expression has been used by pro-Russian separatists in reference to their losses since the start of the first Donbas war in 2014

The attack on Kramatorsk marks one of the deadliest single rocket strikes that has occurred in the past six weeks of fighting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took to social media to condemn the “evil” attack.

“[Russian forces] are cynically destroying the civilian population. This is an evil that has no limits. And if it is not punished, it will never stop,” he wrote.

Russia’s defence ministry denied any involvement in the attack on the train station in Kramatorsk, saying statements from Kyiv were “absolutely untrue”.

Ukrainian police inspect the remains of a large rocket with the words ‘for our children’ written in Russian. Picture: Fadel Senna/AFP

Burnt out vehicles are seen after a rocket attack on the railway station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk. Picture: AFP

Casualties are laid out next to a platform. Picture: AFP

Just two days earlier, Ukrainian authorities had urged the residents of the country’s eastern regions – Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv oblasts – to evacuate ahead of military escalations.

“Russians knew that thousands of people are there every day. I believe that’s what they were counting on,” Ihnatchenko said.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, said thousands of people had been at the station at the time of the attack. Kramatorsk is a major railway hub that was being used for civilian evacuations. “The ‘Rashists’ (‘Russian fascists’) knew very well where they were aiming and what they wanted: they wanted to sow panic and fear, they wanted to take as many civilians as possible,” he said.

“I was in the station. I heard like a double explosion. I rushed to the wall for protection,” said Natalia, searching for her passport among the abandoned belongings.“I saw people covered in blood coming into the station and bodies everywhere on the ground. I don’t know if they were just injured or dead,” she told AFP.

Around 30 bodies, all in civilian clothing, were grouped together and placed under plastic sheets next to a kiosk daubed yellow and blue - the colours of Ukraine’s flag - outside the station, where blood pooled on the ground.

Some victims’ bodies were covered with tarps on one of the train platforms and later loaded into a military truck and taken away from the scene.

Ukraine’s railway service said that while the deadly attack on the station meant it would be closed and evacuations from the east of the country would continue from nearby Sloviansk. “The exact time of departure is currently unknown, trains will depart as they fill up,” a statement said.

Ukrainian soldiers move bodies after a rocket attack killed more than 30 people at a train station that was being used for civilian evacuations in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine. Picture: Fadel Senna / AFP.

Authorities say there were 4000 people at the station at the time of the attack and that the death toll is expected to rise. Picture: Fadel Senna / AFP.

Pro-Russian separatist commander in the Donetsk region, Eduard Basurin, has accused the Ukrainian military of being behind the attack, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Mr Basurin accused the military of deliberately organising a “provocation” at the railway station.

However, intercepted radio messages released Thursday appeared to catch Russian troops complaining about being vastly outnumbered — and being ordered to “f–king kill” civilians, according to Ukraine intelligence.“Civilians, everyone, slay them all!” a Russian commander barked at his underlings during the brutal assault on Mariupol, according to a clip released Wednesday by the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU).

Kramatorsk was hit by Russian strikes earlier this week but had otherwise largely been spared the destruction witnessed by other east Ukraine cities since Russia began its invasion on February 24.

Ukrainian service men check for signs of life among casualties. Picture: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP

Ukrainian officials have warned that Russians have been regrouping for a new offensive — and that Moscow plans to seize as much territory as it can in the eastern part of Ukraine known as Donbas bordering Russia. Officials urged residents in the east of the country to flee westwards immediately in advance of an anticipated Russian attack.

More than a month into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has shifted its focus to eastern and southern parts of the country after stiff resistance torpedoed its plans of an easy capture of the capital Kyiv.

Horrifying to see Russia strike one of the main stations used by civilians evacuating the region where Russia is stepping up its attack.

Action is needed: more sanctions on Russia and more weapons to #Ukraine are under way from the EU. 5th package of EU sanctions just approved.

— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) April 8, 2022

I strongly condemn this morning’s indiscriminate attack against a train station in #Kramatorsk by Russia, which killed dozens of people and left many more wounded. This is yet another attempt to close escape routes for those fleeing this unjustified war and cause human suffering

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) April 8, 2022

Video from #Kramatorsk train station. All the people trapped. Now you understand why mothers write contact details on their children’s bodies. pic.twitter.com/XFnIfcVF1B

— Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) April 7, 2022

Instead, Russian troops appear to be aiming to create a long-sought land link between occupied Crimea and the Moscow-backed separatists of Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbas.

Heavy shelling has already begun to lay waste to towns in the region, and officials have begged civilians to flee, but the intensity of fighting is impeding evacuations.

In Donetsk, the head of the regional military administration Pavlo Kyrylenko said three evacuation trains had been temporarily blocked after a Russian air strike on an overpass by a station.

But officials continued to press civilians to leave where possible.

“There is no secret – the battle for Donbas will be decisive. What we have already experienced, all this horror, it can multiply,” warned governor of the Luhansk region, Sergiy Gaiday.

“Leave! The next few days are the last chances. Buses will be waiting for you in the morning,” he added.

– with AFP